Documentation forSolarWinds Service Desk

Integration for Slack

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Integrate Slack with SWSD

Users have two options for installing Slack for use with SolarWinds Service Desk (SWSD).

User instructions for installing Slack are available in End-user guidance. Administrators should provide users with:

  1. End-user guidance.

  2. Your company's workspace Slack URL. Example: your-workspace.slack.com.

In addition, some settings may need to be activated in Service Desk settings

End-user experience

After end users have downloaded and installed the application following the instructions in the end-user guidance, they can take full advantage of the integration between Slack and SolarWinds Service Desk. In addition to installation instructions, the end user guidance describes how to perform the actions listed below.

End-user capabilities

Users can:

End-user authentication

When the end user clicks Login, a pop-up window opens. There the user can choose from any of the different authentication methods provided by SWSD. Users whose accounts are defined in multiple SWSD accounts must identify the relevant account (the account name is case sensitive).

Administrators need to provide users who have multiple accounts with the different account names. To locate an account name, navigate to Setup > Account > Account summary.

Ticket origin

Every SWSD ticket identifies the origin of the ticket. That is, how the ticket was received. SWSD identifies Slack as the incident origin for all tickets created through Slack.

You can use this value to understand which or how many tickets are created via the Slack channel. You can also use this value in automation rules (for example, to assign tickets coming from Slack to a designated queue).

End-user guidance

For the best experience with integration for Slack you must be logged in as the same user with the same email on all SolarWinds Service Desk channels (web, mobile, Slack, and MS Teams).

Options for adding SolarWinds Service Desk to Slack

Option 1

  1. In Slack, from the left navigation pane, scroll to the bottom and click Apps to expand the list of apps.

  2. In the Apps pane to the right, type solarwinds into the search field.

  3. In the results area, click SolarWinds Service Desk, and then click Add.


After installation is complete, you will receive a chat message on the Home tab in Slack similar to the one below.

Option 2

  1. Go to https://app.samanage.com/slack.

  2. When prompted, enter the company workspace URL provided by your employer, and then click Continue.

  3. Proceed through the prompts until integration is complete.

Use the mobile app

After you have integrated Slack with SolarWinds Service Desk, you can also choose to use the Slack mobile application, which you can download from your mobile device's app store.

Log in to SolarWinds Service Desk

If you have multiple accounts in SolarWinds Service Desk, you will need to identify the account you are logging into. If you don't know the account name, contact your service desk or administrator.

  1. In Slack, in the left pane under Apps, click SolarWinds Service Desk.

  2. From the SolarWinds Service Desk Home tab, notice the message from Service Desk bot.

  3. Click Login.

  4. When prompted, enter your email address, and then click Next. 

  5. When prompted, enter your password and click Sign In. After you have signed in you can create a new ticket or get help. See End-user authentication for more information.

ESM customers need to select a service provider on the Home tab.

Create a new ticket

  1. From the Messages tab, click the button labeled Create ticket. Optionally, you can type the following into the rich text field: /swsd create

  2. In the Create ticket pop-up, type a title for your ticket, provide an optional description, and select a category from the drop-down menu.

  3. If prompted for a subcategory, select the appropriate subcategory.

  4. Click Submit.

The ticket displays on the Messages tab after it is submitted. You can see ticket details such as category, subcategory, ticket ID, creation date, status, and assignee.

Add a comment to an open ticket

You can add a comment by typing text into the rich text field. Optionally, you can add a comment by using the Slack Reply to thread button. SWSD sends a push notification for every comment.

If your organization uses both Microsoft Teams and Slack, SWSD sends push notifications in both applications and users can add comments through both.

Add an attachment to a ticket

Currently the ability to add attachments to tickets created via Slack is available only to customers in the US. Implementation in other regions is planned.

At the bottom of the ticket's rich text field, double-click +.

Attachment file size is limited to 25MB and all file types are acceptable.

See the ticket in SolarWinds Service Desk

Click the blue ticket number to open the ticket in SWSD.

See a list of your open tickets

Click the Home tab in Slack to see a list of your open tickets.

See a list of all comments on a ticket

From the Home tab, under the ticket title and description, click the link to comments.

Live chat with agent

If your organization has enabled live chat through Slack and enabled the Virtual Agent feature, after several attempts to search for solution, you can see an option to Live Chat with agent. Click the button to begin a chat.

To save time for the requester and the agent the agent will receive a summary of requester's last conversation with the Virtual Agent.

Alternatively, if the Virtual Agent is not enabled, you can select the Chat with Live Agent command immediately upon logging into Slack.

Through Slack, you receive an automated message that shows where you are in the queue. When an agent becomes available you receive a new message from the agent. To save time for the both requester and the live agent, the live agent receives a summary of requester's last conversation with the Virtual Agent.

Mark a ticket as resolved

From the Home tab, click Resolve to the right of the ticket number and title.

Get help

From the Messages tab, click Help menu. Optionally, you can type the following into the input field: /swsd help

Sign out

From the Home tab, click Sign Out.